Nation & world briefs: For original Trump team, a moment to celebrate and reflect

The Associated Press

Published
5:21 pm CDT, Saturday, May 14, 2016

NEW YORK — They were the core of the original Trump team, a small group of largely obscure political operatives who signed on a year ago for the seemingly quixotic presidential campaign of an oft-mocked celebrity businessman.

Yet there they were in the lobby of the Trump Tower in New York City, sharing a very public embrace as Donald Trump’s victory in Indiana made it clear he was on track to be the Republican nominee for president. The improbable had come to pass.

“It’s professionally very satisfying,” campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said in an interview. “A lot of us have been here from the very beginning when the professional pundits said this was a career-ender and we weren’t going anywhere.”

“We’ve done something no one thought could be done,” Lewandowski said.

Lewandowski’s path to Trump Tower was an unlikely one. He grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts, worked as a political operative on Capitol Hill, graduated from the New Hampshire state police academy and took a job with Americans for Prosperity, the flagship conservative political organization of the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

Ukraine’s Jamala wins 2016 Eurovision Song Contest

STOCKHOLM — Ukrainian singer Jamala’s melancholic tune about Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars was crowned the winner of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest early Sunday, an unusual choice for the kitschy pop fest.

Susana Jamaladinova, a 32-year-old trained opera singer who uses the stage name Jamala, received the highest score of 534 points for her song “1944,” after votes from juries and TV viewers across Europe were tallied following performances Saturday night by the 26 finalists at Stockholm’s Globe Arena.

Australia’s Dami Im was second with 511 points, followed by Russia’s Sergey Lazarev in third with 491.

The show was broadcast live in Europe, China, Kazakhstan, Australia, New Zealand and, for the first time, the United States. Last year’s contest reached nearly 200 million viewers globally.

Amid entries about love and desire, Jamala’s song stood out. With somber lyrics it recalls how Crimean Tatars, including her great-grandmother, were deported in 1944 by Soviet authorities during World War II. Many died during the deportations or starved to death on the barren steppes of central Asia. Decades later some of the survivors were allowed to return to the Crimean Peninsula.

Big rallies or quiet voters? Is Clinton low on enthusiasm?

Whether Hillary Clinton is competing against Democratic rival Bernie Sanders or presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, one concern is much the same. They are outsider candidates riding a wave of populist excitement, while she is viewed as a traditional, establishment choice.

As a result, her campaign sometimes just looks a little less exciting.

Clinton has won far more votes than any other 2016 candidate. But if she moves into a general election matchup with Trump, she may continue to be dogged by questions about voter enthusiasm, especially as Trump pledges to continue his raucous rallies.

Clinton’s supporters say they are not worried.

Moody’s downgrades Saudi Arabia on lower oil prices

NEW YORK— Saudi Arabia’s credit rating has been downgraded by Moody’s because of the long and deep slump in oil prices.

Moody’s Investors Service said Saturday that it also downgraded Gulf oil producers Bahrain and Oman. It left ratings unchanged for other Gulf states including Kuwait and Qatar.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter. Moody’s cut the country’s long-term issuer rating one notch to A1 from Aa3 after a review that began in March.

Crude prices fell from more than $100 in mid-2014 to under $30 a barrel in February, although they have recovered into the mid-$40s. Benchmark international crude settled Friday at $47.83 a barrel.

“A combination of lower growth, higher debt levels and smaller domestic and external buffers leave the Kingdom less well positioned to weather future shocks,” Moody’s said in a note.

Jewish bus blaze evokes tension of 1991 Brooklyn riots

NEW YORK — For days, the charred school bus sat in front of a Jewish girls’ school in Brooklyn, its ruined hulk posing a troubling question: Has the quarter-century of peace between blacks and Jews in Crown Heights begun to fray?

Twenty five years ago this August, the neighborhood’s black residents exploded into days of rioting after a 7-year-old boy, the son of Guyanese immigrants, was accidentally struck and killed by a car in the motorcade of the leader of the Lubavitcher sect. A rabbinical student was stabbed and died. Many people were beaten. Vehicles were flipped and burned.

Those tensions were supposed to have melted away a long time ago, but last Sunday afternoon a group of boys, all black, went aboard an unlocked bus parked in front of the Bnos Chomesh Academy, set fire to the seats and ran. Flames consumed the bus in minutes.

Five children, including 11-year-olds, a 12-year-old and two 14-year-olds, have been arrested and accused of arson and criminal mischief.

The episode prompted at least one leader in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community to formally complain to police about what he saw as a trend in anti-Semitic incidents. He says another bus was attacked and a student was beaten by a group of black teens in the days before the bus burning.